# St Jerome in the Wilderness [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [LOTTO, Lorenzo]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Oil on panel, 81 x 61 cm ## Commentary St Jerome in the Wilderness c. 1509 Oil on panel, 81 x 61 cm Museo Nazionale di Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome In Venetian Renaissance art, St Jerome was portrayed either seated and reading in his study or kneeling in penitence in the wilderness. Lotto painted at least five depictions of St Jerome and, taken in chronological order, these works show a striking development in his treatment of the theme. Whereas the earliest version of the theme, now in the Louvre, had combined the saint's penitential and contemplative functions, the St Jerome in Castel Sant'Angelomarks a radical change in Lotto's approach to the subject. Jerome here appears twice, in the upper left as a penitent kneeling before a crucifix and beating his breast with a stone, and in the foreground as a scholar seated on a path marked off by a rudimentary fence. The painting is dated to the period of the artist's activity in Rome. The recumbent figure of Jerome can be compared with <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/r/raphael/4stanze/1segnatu/1/athens02.html'\)" href="/html/r/raphael/4stanze/1segnatu/1/athens02.html">Raphael's Diogenes,</a> reclining on the steps in the School of Athens. ## Related artworks - [Adoration of the Shepherds]() - [Allegory of Chastity detail\)]() - [Allegory of Chastity \("Maiden's Dream"\)]() - [Allegory of Virtue and Vice \(detail\)]() - [Allegory of Virtue and Vice]() - [Angel Annunciating]() - [Angel of the Annunciation]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation]() - [Architect]() - [Assumption of the Virgin]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()